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Comment by simonsarris | Hacker News Reader

Before you laugh that you'd never use this to buy a car, it may be worth taking the time to find your make/model and add it to your "Garage" on amazon. Amazon will then try to confirm or not if the cabin air filter you are about to buy is a correct fit for your car. Amazon tries to do the same thing with camera gear.

At least, that's the theory. In practice you still need to do 100% of the due diligence or you'll end up with spark plug wires that are for the non-California version of the engine of your girlfriend's 2004 Outback, and then you have to build an awkward bracket over the motor because you're too stubborn to return them...

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Somewhat surprising the manufacturers were still selling two different engines in 2004.

My pet peeve with Amazon is a similar "nice but not quite good enough feature" : their selling of fasteners. Nuts, bolts, etc fall into a clear if quite complex N-space of sizes and features. This can be represented nicely in a web site, for example : http://www.mcmaster.com/ however even though Amazon acquired a nuts-n-bolts retailer some years ago, their site is a horrible mess for this kind of item. I'm not sure if this is because there are no humans curating the catalog, or because Bezos doesn't do his own maker projects and vehicle maintenance...

To add to the problem with fasteners or really anything that has sizes listed with fractions, the search is completely oblivious to the `/` character, so trying to find a 1/2-20 bolt will get you every bolt with a 1 2 or 20 somewhere in the description, without taking it's position/context into account at all. I usually end up using google to search amazon in those situations, which kinda sucks since you give up the ability to filter by prime or one day items.

Likewise, try to find some "ECC RAM" for your server on amazon.fr. They don't make the distinction between "ECC" and "non-ECC" in search, hence returning basically every kind of RAM. Because, for some weird reason, French retailers like to specify that their RAM is not ECC in the title of the item. (Surprisingly enough, this doesn't seem to be an issue on amazon.com.)

They were still doing it in 2008.

I had a 2008 Lancer and the owners manual constantly had to make distinctions between "California" and "non-California" versions for various procedures/features.

(I'm not even in North America, that's just global manufacturing for you)

Doing some quick searches suggests that this is an emissions-related issue.

It is, but California's emissions standards have been adopted by other states, and a lot of companies just make one model that is compliant in all 50 states. I'm not sure what the cost difference is these days, but I wonder if it's worth having to maintain two separate lines of inventory. It presents a problem to people who buy a new car, then move to California. If there aren't enough miles on the odometer, California will refuse to register the car because it doesn't meet their emissions standards.

Emissions standard says I don't have enough miles on the odometer, huh? I'll show them.

Completely agreed. I hate buying those kinds of parts from amazon for this reason.

Find the fitting you need but you found it in 3/4 instead of 1/2? You need to start over from scratch 90% of the time.

I'm a fan of supplyhouse.com but mcmaster.com looks good too!

I bought exhaust bolts this way, and of course they didn't fit. The spacers on the bolts were longer than the OEM bolts, so fumes would go into the cabin. Lesson learned..

It would be nice if they fixed this problem. I saw a ton of parts that incorrectly said they'd fit my vehicle. Windshield wipers are an easy example. You'll see varying length wiper blades they say will fit.

Edit: It seems like they could favor search results matching specific vehicles to combat this. For example, a part should be viewed as less relevant for claiming compatibility with more vehicles. This would be problematic for universal stuff like tires, wiper blades, and other accessories, but I'm sure they could differentiate between the legit universal stuff and the seller's who claim their part fits every vehicle in existence.

I'm sure this is harder than I'm making it out to be, I can't imagine all the edge cases they have to deal with. But some effort would really help, and I'd be more likely to buy this stuff online if it wasn't so damn difficult to verify that the part is compatible.

Varying lengths of wiper blades will fit your car. Most cars have a front-left, front-right, and rear wiper blade, all of which are different sizes.

I should of been more specific. I just did a quick check to confirm, and I see three wiper blade sizes (24", 16", and 14") on the first page of results. My car doesn't have a model/trim with a rear wiper blade.

I always up-size my wiper blades, the larger ones work just fine and clear a larger area on the window.

I never understood why they under-size them to begin with.

So a 16" will almost certainly fit where a 14" goes.

I run into this same problem on eBay. I search for my make and model, and tons of junk aftermarket parts show up that won't fit without thousands of dollars of fabrication. Sure that $150 turbo will fit my car, after I fabricate 50 parts. I now have to put "-fits" in my search query, but I'm sure that omits tons of legitimate results. But eBay makes a grip of money from all the listings of crap generic parts, so they have no incentive to stop it.

eBay is just horrible at cleaning up their own website. Go to games and consoles, select PS4, then select "consoles" subcategory - I would say 80% of items there are not consoles, they are accessories, games, pads, everything that should be in their own category. Same with any other product - which makes eBay incredibly frustrating to use and just a bad experience in general. Not to mention the amount of clearly counterfeit, fake, pirated games that are on sale - you'd think it would be easy to spot and remove, but ebay doesn't seem to care.

> I bought exhaust bolts this way, and of course they didn't fit. The spacers on the bolts were longer than the OEM bolts, so fumes would go into the cabin. Lesson learned..

If one orders a spare that doesn't fit in the existing vehicle, it may prompt purchasing a vehicle instead. Who knows?

Well I laughed upon adding a Tesla Model S and the "parts and accessories for your vehicle" showing tons of things that weren't even relevant like oil, oil filters, and exhaust systems.

Small price to pay for living in the future ;)

I don't remember seeing any electric cars in Mad Max...

They all live in Electric Utopia. That's one of the parts the movie has not shown.

To be fair we never get to see the bullet farm or gas town.

All we saw was Australia, Australia is like that today anyway.

Well actually, "Gas Town" was mentioned in the latest movie. It and oil refining in general are also a significant part of the Mad Max video game. http://madmax.wikia.com/wiki/Gas_Town

I wonder if they don't have a separate categorization for "electric vehicle"

I did this awhile ago with my old car and found it tried to tell me whether a bunch of random non-car electronics parts I was buying were compatible with my car. Which was a bit cluttering.

It is an interesting feature and sometimes useful, but like you I found that when I even was buying car parts it wasn't always on the ball about whether or not the part I was looking at was compatible. I believe I remember errors in both the false positive and false negative directions, so I stopped trusting it's screening capabilities really at all and mostly have ignored it since.

It's motorcycle part match is an even larger adventure.

Have had the same experience with motorcycle brake pads.

> Before you laugh that you'd never use this to buy a car, it may be worth taking the time to find your make/model and add it to your "Garage" on amazon. Amazon will then try to confirm or not if the cabin air filter you are about to buy is a correct fit for your car. Amazon tries to do the same thing with camera gear.

If that's the case, why didn't Amazon include older model cars? I know the Chevy Volt has models starting from 2012 or 2011, yet only 2016 and 2017 models are shown

UPDATE: I was wrong. The different models do show up if you search for it, but for some reason I did not see it while browsing.

I just wish that Amazon could start selling cars directly.

> If that's the case, why didn't Amazon include older model cars?

Given that I can add an 1896 Duryea (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duryea_Motor_Wagon_Company) to my garage, I think it's safe to say they include older model cars.

> I just wish that Amazon could start selling cars directly.

They are waiting for people to buy enough accessories that aren't suitable for their existing vehicles.

Subsequently, they'll start selling vehicles that might be suitable for the accessories sold.

I just did a search for full-size vans with all-wheel drive (I have idealistic and irrational dreams of being an all-terrain courier), and it had results for model years as far back as 2001.

I don't think amazon will start selling car now or in the near future. The subtitle below "amazon vehicles" logo says "see specs, read reviews and ask owners". It looks like it's just a forum kind of thing at this moment. And we know there're huge amount of legal issues people needs to deal with when sell cars as well as financing, leasing etc. If amazon gonna launch this, it's going to be a huge product, huge enough to be another billion dollar company.

AFAIK, Amazon Japan does sell cars.

Disclaimer: I work for a company selling cars online. These are my personal opinions, not my employers.

First let's assume that Amazon can't sell new cars due to restrictive franchise laws in every state.

You are easily off by an order of magnitude on the billion dollar business statement. Carmax is the largest used car dealer in the nation, with a market cap of over 11 billion. As of 2015 they captured about 1.7% of used car sales. (They sold 582,282 vehicles to consumers and over 33.8 million used vehicles were sold, I'm on my phone so I can source this later if you'd like)

Second Amazon is an beast and anyone in a market that Amazon is considering should pay careful attention. That said I think that vehicle sales is such a different market in many ways that Amazon will either take a long time to figure out the whole process and provide a consistent quality product or they will acquire a company currently in the used vehicle market. The two leaders in the online space had a huge leg up due to ancestry or acquisition. I doubt Amazon would be stubborn enough to learn the business the hard way.

They also have this for other categories like appliances too: amazon.com/partstore

This worked great on my old car where the sun visor was deteriorated and I was searching for a replacement with matching fabric color.

Super Cheap Auto, an Australian (and New Zealand) auto parts chain has something similar to this.

You select your make, model, year, and engine, and it comes up with a list of parts that fit your vehicle, that can be filtered by use.

They also offer free shipping. I got a new front bumper and apron for my truck for $200-odd shipped to my front door.

Euro Car Parts in the UK does this too.

Infact you can even put your vehicle registration number in and it'll do the work for you.

Subaru franchise dealers who do online parts sales always ask customers to enter their VIN to confirm fitment. Sometimes manufacturers (not just Subaru but all of them) even change part numbers within a model year so you always have to check.

I've been had surprising good luck ordering automotive parts from Amazon.

I stripped some caliper bolts on an 90's truck. I needed a heli-coil(odd size one), and a new bolt. When ordering the program suggested new caliper bushings. Everything fit perfectly.

I thought, if they can keep accuracy of orders spot on, and prices cheap; they will put a huge dent in the automotive parts market.

That said, I've noticed when Amazon goes into a new market, they nail price, and accuracy of order.

They then seem to raise prices slowly. I notice those price increases, and will shop elsewhere, but as of now--I will buy all my auto parts from Amazon.

Whomever programmed that automotive garage did a really good job.

Amazon likes to put local businesses out of business, doesn't it? It's like Internet's WalMart

I bought a new headlight for my car that Amazon said would fit. It did not. Maybe it was a problem with a 3rd party that is selling through Amazon, but it was Amazon that told me it would fit and they lost my trust on car parts.

Amazon can't even tell me whether they're able to ship something to my country until the second-to-last page of the checkout process.

In theory is right! I added my Toyota Tacoma a few years ago, and STILL ended up with the wrong windshield wipers.

If I search google for "new tires 2011 Kawasaki ninja 1000" Google is somehow unable to produce a shopping result. There is an ad for Yokohama. Do they even make motorcycle tires?

If this is the competition Amazon is going to make a lot of money on this Garage thing.

Amazon has the ability to search for it, but doesn't seem to have any products: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sx_as?keywords=tires&rh=n%3A156...

That is quite nice/horrible. Your link adds the bike to my Amazon garage without any other action on my part.

It seems to work somewhat well. I bought a set of brake rotors that were 100% great, but a replacement wiper motor that ended up being for the wrong model. I wonder to what degree third party sellers are required to verify fit information.

Do you know if there is a stand alone service like "Your Garage" somewhere?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/your-garage

Yes I mean if there is a service not on amazon :)

Most auto parts sites have something along these lines.

Rock Auto is my go-to for most parts. Example, for my 2012 civic:

http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/honda,2012,civic,1.8l+l4,...

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